When Apple revealed the Apple Watch Series 12, two features stood out: the new Siri Recap functionality, as well as the much-improved heart rate monitor. While these two features are part of the reason I was compelled to buy the new Apple Watch, I found myself excited about much more than just these two things.
Battery and charging
Although Apple’s website doesn’t list any additional battery life for the Apple Watch Series 12 over the Series 11, the battery certainly seems to last longer. As I’ve written in the past, I used WHOOP before the Apple Watch Series 12, and although I kept my Apple Watch, I never used it for sleep tracking.
After the keynote, I decided to try the Apple Watch’s sleep tracking. That said, on my Series 11, juggling sleep tracking and charging was a bit of a pain. After using the watch all day, I had to charge it a little before going to sleep, then when I woke up, I had to charge it again.
On the 12 series, this is not the case. It has enough battery to last a day and night, and now I just charge it when I wake up. The Apple Watch Series 12 also charges much faster, making this part less of a pain. 15 minutes of charging gets you up to 12 hours of use, according to Apple.
I imagine the new S11 chip, derived from the A20 Pro’s 2nm design, is a big part of why battery life seems much longer. Whatever the reason, it’s amazing to have no charging anxiety related to sleep tracking on the Apple Watch Series 12. Another big advantage of the S11 chip? The Apple Watch Series 12 feels much faster, especially with Siri.
Software exclusives
On the Series 12, Apple finally includes a proper step counter as a complication, which I like to check in my smart stack. Could this happen to older Apple Watches? Probably. It’s not like Apple didn’t count steps before. The Apple Watch Series 12 certainly counts them more accurately, but given that the data is there, I think Apple should just add the complication. Either way, it’s good to have on Series 12.
Another cool new feature is the entire Readiness app, which gives you an idea of your health today based on your sleep last night, your activity the day before, and your vital signs. This is similar to a recovery score on WHOOP, and I was certainly happy to see Apple add this to the Apple Watch? It’s a bit of a shame that it’s exclusive to the 12 series, but I can understand why Apple doesn’t want to calculate it with less precise data.
Conclude
Overall, the Apple Watch Series 12 is a pretty interesting upgrade. It’s a total S year, but if you want your Apple Watch to do more rather than just look different, I’d say this could be one of the most significant year-over-year upgrades since the Apple Watch Series 4.
The bezels are definitely a bit thicker compared to the Series 10 and 11. As someone using a watch face with a black background, I can’t say I noticed this – although I hope Apple improves this in the next iteration.
One last thing to note: the Apple Watch Series 12 offers Ceramic Shield 2 on the aluminum models, making it much more scratch-resistant than older Apple Watch models. I haven’t had mine long enough to really test this, although so far my Apple Watch still seems perfect.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
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